So a real live concert pianist of thirty-five years turns her hand to writing and you have to envy such latent talent and be very grateful that it emerged, because there is nothing I can find to criticise in Jeannette Haien's style, it flows like a perfect little sonata all of its own.

In a lot of the reviews I read (not Dorothy’s of course), and the publicity interviews, there is a tendency to glorify the spirit of love and forgiveness in Jeannette Wells, her marvelous refusal to judge her parents, the amazing way that she has escaped unscathed from her traumatic childhood.

I’m curious what you’ll think of The Glass Castle after hearing your thoughts about de Lempicke; the mother in Jeannette Walls’s book finds some, oh, let’s say some worrisome ways of pursuing her art … I get a little irritated with people who criticize Gladwell.